Excerpts for Ironwood Tree

The Ironwood Tree

Thorndike Press

Chapter One

IN WHICH the Grace Twins Are Triplets

Jared couldn't move from the doorway. He heard
the clanging of swords and cheering, but the
sounds seemed to come from far away. He watched
in horror as the coach confronted his double.
The man got red in the face, and some of the
other players looked at Jared's double in shock.

"Great." Jared grimaced. There was no way he
could explain this.

The coach pointed toward the large gym door, and
he watched Not-Jared stalk toward it - and
toward him. As Not-Jared got closer to Jared, it
smirked. Jared clenched his hands into fists.

Not-Jared passed Jared without a single glance,
slamming through the double doors. Jared wanted
to find some way to wipe that smile off its
face. He followed after it, into a hallway lined
with lockers.

"Who are you?" Jared demanded. "What do you
want?"

Not-Jared turned to face him, and something in
its eyes made Jared go cold all over. "Don't you
know me? Am I not your own self?" Its mouth
curled into a sneer.

It was strange to watch it move and speak. It
wasn't like watching Simon, with his tidy hair
and the smear of toothpaste on his upper lip.
And it wasn't quite himself either - the hair
was messier, and the eyes were darker
and ... different. It took a step toward him.

Jared took a step back, wishing for any kind of
faerie protection, and then he remembered the
pocketknife in his jeans. Faeries hated iron,
and steel was at least part iron. He opened one
of the blades. "Why don't you all just leave us
alone?"

The creature threw back its head and laughed.
"You can never get away from your own self."

"Shut up! You're not me." Jared pointed the
knife at his double.

"Put that toy away," Not-Jared said, its voice
low and harsh.

"I don't know who you are, or who sent you, but
bet I know what you're looking for," said Jared.
"The Guide. Well, you're never going to get it."

The creature's grin widened into something that
still wasn't really a smile. Then suddenly it
shrank back as though frightened. Jared watched
in amazement as the Not-Jared's body shrank, its
dark hair paled into a sandy brown, and its now
blue eyes went wide with terror.

Before Jared could fully comprehend what he was
seeing, he heard a woman's voice behind him.

"What's going on here? Put that knife down."

The vice principal rushed up, grabbing Jared's
wrist. The pocketknife clattered to the linoleum
floor. Jared stared at the blade as the
sandy-haired boy ran off down the hall, his sobs
sounding a lot like laughter.

"I can't believe you brought your knife to
school," Simon whispered to Jared as they sat
together outside the vice principal's office.

Jared shot him a look. He had explained several
times - even once to the police - that he was
only showing the kid the knife, but they'd never
found the other boy to confirm the story. Then
the vice principal had asked Jared to wait
outside. Their mother had been in the vice
principal's office a long time, but Jared
couldn't hear what was going on.

"What kind of faerie do you think that thing
was?" Simon asked.

Jared shrugged. "I wish we had the book so I
could look it up."

"You don't remember anything that could
shape-shift like that?"

"I don't know." Jared rubbed his face.

"Look, I told Mom it wasn't your fault. You'll
just have to explain."

Jared gave a short laugh. "Yeah, like I can tell
her what happened."

"I could say that kid stole something from
Mallory's bag." When Jared didn't respond, Simon
tried again. "I could pretend I did it. We could
switch shirts and everything."

Jared just shook his head.

Finally their mother emerged from the vice
principal's office. She looked tired.

"I'm sorry," Jared said.

He was surprised by the calm tone of her voice.
"I don't want to talk about it, Jared. Get your
sister and let's just go."

Jared nodded and followed Simon, looking back
just in time to see their mother sink down in
the chair he'd vacated. What was she thinking?
Why wasn't she yelling? He found himself wishing
that she was mad - at least that he would
understand. Her quiet sadness was more
frightening. It was like this was all she
expected of him.

Simon and Jared walked through the school,
stopping to ask fencing team members if they'd
seen Mallory. None of them had. They even
stopped Chris-the-captain. He looked
uncomfortable when they asked about Mallory, but
he shook his head. The gymnasium was empty, the
only sounds the echo of their steps on the
glossy wood floor. The black mat had been rolled
up, and everything from the meet had been put
away.

Finally a girl with long, brown hair told them
she'd seen Mallory crying in the girls'
bathroom.

Simon shook his head. "Mallory? Crying? But she
won."

The girl shrugged. "I asked her if she was okay,
but she said she was fine."

"You think that was really her?" Simon asked as
they walked toward the restroom.

"You mean, was something impersonating her? Why
would a faerie turn into Mallory and then cry in
a girls' bathroom?"

"I don't know," said Simon. "I'd cry if I had to
turn into Mallory."

Jared snorted. "So, you want to go in there and
look for her?"

"I'm not going into the girls' room," Simon
said. "Besides, you're already in so much
trouble, there's no way you can get into more."

"I can always get into more trouble," Jared said
with a sigh. He pushed open the door. It looked
surprisingly like the boys' room, except there
were no urinals.

"Mallory?" he called. No answer. He peered under
the stalls but didn't see any feet. He pushed
open one of the doors gingerly. Even though
there was no one in there, he felt weird, jumpy
and embarrassed. After a moment he darted back
out into the hall.

"She's not in there?" Simon said.

"It's empty." Jared glanced past the line of
lockers, hoping no one had seen him.

"Maybe she went to the office looking for us,"
Simon said. "I don't see her anywhere."

A feeling of dread uncoiled in the pit of
Jared's stomach. After the vice principal had
caught him, he hadn't really thought about
anything but how much trouble he was in. But
that thing was still running around the school.
He remembered how the creature had looked
through Mallory's bag at the match.

"What if she went outside?" Jared said, hoping
that they could still find her before it did.
"She could have gone out to see if we were
waiting by the car."

"We could look." Simon shrugged. Jared could
tell he wasn't convinced, but they walked
outside anyway.

The sky had already deepened to purples and
golds. In the dimming light they walked past the
track and the baseball field.

"I don't see her," Simon said.

Jared nodded. His stomach churned with
nervousness. Where is she? he wondered.

"Hey," Simon said. "What's that?" He walked a
few feet and leaned down to pick up something
shining in the grass.

"Mallory's fencing medal," Jared said. "And
look."

On the grass large chunks of rock formed a
circle around the medal. Jared knelt down beside
the largest stone. Engraved deeply in the rock
was a word: TRADE.

"Stones," Simon said. "Like from the quarry."

Jared looked up, surprised. "Remember the map we
found? It said dwarves live in the quarry - but
I don't think dwarves can shape-shift."

"Mallory could still be inside with Mom. She
could be in the office waiting for us."

Jared wanted to believe it. "Then why is her
medal out here?"

"Maybe she dropped it. Maybe this is a trap."
Simon started walking back toward the school.
"Come on," he said. "Let's go back and see if
she's with Mom."

Jared nodded numbly.

When they got back inside, they found their
mother in the school entrance, talking into her
cell phone. Her back was to them, and she was
alone.

Although their mother was speaking softly, her
voice traveled easily to where they crouched.
"Yeah, I thought things were getting better too.
But, you know, Jared never admitted to what
happened when we first moved here ... and well,
this is going to sound strange, but Mallory and
Simon are so protective of him."

Jared froze, both dreading what she was going to
say and unable to make himself do anything to
stop her from continuing.

"No, no. They deny he ever did any of those
things. And they're keeping something from me. I
can tell by the way they stop talking when they
come into a room, the way they cover for one
another, especially for Jared. You should have
heard Simon tonight, making up excuses for his
brother pulling a knife on that little boy."
Here she made a choked noise and began crying.

"I just don't know if I can handle him anymore.
He is so angry, Richard. Maybe he should go and
stay with you for a while."

Dad. She was talking to their dad.

Simon jabbed Jared in the arm. "Come on.
Mallory's not here."

Jared turned dazedly and followed his brother
out the door. He could not have said how he felt
at that moment - except maybe hollow.